Shizuoka green tea recalled over radiation fears

TOKYO - Japan has detected radiation above the legal limit in tea grown in Shizuoka, the heart of the nation's green tea industry, officials said, blaming the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. A tea dealer has started a recall of the dried tea after measuring about 679 becquerels of caesium per kg (Bq/kg) in leaves at a tea factory in the city, prefectural officials said. The legal limit is 500 Bq/kg. The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, located 360 km from Shizuoka, was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Earlier this month Japan banned the shipment of green tea leaves from all or part of four other prefectures around Tokyo - Chiba, Ibaraki, Kanagawa and Tochigi - after radioactive caesium above legal levels was found in samples. Shizuoka prefecture will carry out sampling tests at some 100 other tea factories in the area next week, although the caesium was at a lev...